The new ERGON range of automatic packers is based on design choices inspired by key concepts such as ergonomics, technology, sturdiness and modularity, masterfully blended to mark a new, significant evolution in the history of SMI products.

You can point out the new ERGON packers rather quickly due to the rounded profile of the movable safety guards, which allow to house all the motors on the outside with respect to the mechanical units they run, facilitating line operator access when performing maintenance.

The WP ERGON series includes automatic machines for the packaging of plastic, metal, cardboard and glass containers in corrugated cardboard cases and/or trays without film. The octagonal or rectangular trays can have walls of either the same height or different heights.

The WP ERGON series case packers can achieve an output up to 80 packs per minute, according to the machine model and to the product. The pack collations can vary according to the containers shape and dimensions; in general, the most requested collations are: 2x3, 3x4 and 4x6.

Moreover, all WP ERGON case packers are equipped with an electronic grouping system, manual format changeover and with the “Easy-Load” system to automatically load the cardbord blank magazine.

The blanks magazine capacity can be increased through modular units of expansion.

WP 400

Speed (PPM)

40

Packaging Type

Tray onlyWrap-around case

Size (mm)

13120 x 1940 x 2950

Lanes

1

1 On the machine's inlet conveyor belt, featuring low-friction chains made of thermoplastic material, a specific group of motorized oscillanting guides accurately lines up the loose containers moving towards the pack formation zone, where the containers are clustered in the selected format through electronically synchronized fingers, operating in continuous motion.

2The new Easy-Load system automatically loads cardboard blanks into the dedicated blank magazine of the machine. The new loading device is made up of a group of motorized mat-equipped conveyor belts on which the operator easily places the cardboard blanks in uniform horizontal stacks.

3A corrugated cardboard blank is picked from the blank magazine by a newly designed picker equipped with vacuum suction cups; then, the carboard blank is carried up along the blank ramp and positioned under the incoming pack collation with short side leading. The tray/case former features a continuous wrap-around system.

4The flap folding devices fold the blank’s side flaps and then the upper/lower flaps of both the front and back side of the pack. The hot melt glue sealing ensures an excellent resistance of the pack.

5At the machine outlet, the pack walls are pressed by special guides.

Machine bearing frame made of sand-blasted and powder-painted steel

The machine is equipped with sliding protection doors in anodised aluminium featuring a rounded shape which let all the motors (featuring low energy consumption) be placed externally if compared to the mechanical groups they activate.
The closing system of doors is equipped with a slow-down device, which accompanies the door smoothly in its final phase of closure

Absence of gearboxes and prevailing employment of ICOS brushless motors equipped with digital servo-driver integrated into the motor

POSYC® control panel mounted man-high and running the whole length of the machine (fixed on AFW/LSK/LWP models)

Compact size and competitive prices

Thanks to their reduced size, the ERGON machines are the ideal solution for the customers who do not possess large plants. Moreover, the price of the ERGON models is very competitive, despite the high-tech solutions and the use of very reliable components. All ERGON models can be customized, in order to increase their basic functions.

Modular design

SMI machines are designed according to advanced principles of module assembly and feature interchangeable mechanical and electronic components, which ensure a reduction of the down-times during technical interventions or programmed maintenance and the optimization of the use of spare parts on stock.

Operational flexibility

SMI machines can package a wide range of products in several pack collations, so as to effectively meet the end user's current and future requirements.
Moreover, each machine can be equipped with additional devices, which increase its basic functions and ensure a high level of customization of the final package.

Motors directly connected to the drive shafts

SMI machines do not include gearboxes: the motors are directly connected to the drive shafts. The consequent advantage is the reduction of maintenance, energy consumption and noise.

Continuous motion pack formation

The continuous motion packaging system ensures a fluid production process and protects the containers from strokes, thus granting more reliability, a better quality of the pack and a reduction of mechanical wear.

Thermoplastic material dividing pins

In the pack formation zone, the use of dividing pins made of thermoplastic material, which last longer than those made of metal, reduces the machine noise and protects the fragile containers (such as glass containers) and their labels.

Easy and low-cost maintenance

The rounded protection doors of ERGON models allow broader space inside the machine and thus the motors can be mounted externally on the machine side edges.
Therefore, they are easily accessible and reachable for maintenance.
Actually, the operator doesn't need to enter the internal parts of the shrink wrapper when carrying out
manual interventions.

New shapes

All of the models of SMI case packers can realize hexagonal or octagonal microflute/miniflute cardboard cases, which can be subject to more sophisticated printing processes, as compared to the standard corrugated cardboard.

Perfect cases

SMI case packers are equipped with fixed guides, which press the pack walls at the machine outlet. This system ensures a perfectly balanced, resistant case, whereas the rotary chain pressing systems can not guarantee the same quality level.

"User-friendly" man-machine interface

The POSYC® control panel, sliding on a boom running the whole length the machine, is very easy to use, thanks to the intuitive interface, the touch screen and the diagnosis functions and real-time technical support on the POSYC®.

Easy-Load

The innovative “Easy-Load” system allows the automatic loading of the cardboard blanks magazine and features considerable advantages from an operating and functional point of view; in fact, the operator can easily load the cardboard blanks, stacked horizontally in uniform groups, because the feeding belt of the cardboard blanks magazine is positioned at the same working height as the packer's infeed belt, rather than under it.

More in detail, the new system patented by SMI is made up of a series of conveyor belts, fitted with motorized mats, which feed the packer's cardboard blanks magazine; the cardboard blank stacks are carried on these belts up to the area in which they are translated and then continue up to the collection system at case/shrink packer infeed.

Thanks to specific sensors, the layout and feed of the cardboard blanks on the conveyor belts fitted with the motorized mats and their loading into the packer's magazine is, in fact, fully automated.

Therefore, the innovative solution devised by SMI eliminates the disadvantages related to the traditional loading of the cardboard blanks magazine, which force the operator to bend his/her body continuously to place the blanks in the bottom part of the machine.

The technology used in the "Easy-Load" magazine also features the great advantage of ensuring fluid and constant picking operations with a wide range of cardboard blanks having a thickness between 0.5 mm and 5 mm.

Pallet display tray

Wrap-around case packers of the WP series and shrink wrappers of the SK series can be predisposed in order to produce, in addition to standard packs in corrugated board boxes / trays or in shrink film bundles (with or without tray), also the so called "pallet displays", e.g. large trays in corrugated board measuring ¼ (WP and SK) and ½ europallet (WP) size.

These collations allow to get remarkable advantages: • better use of the space available on the pallet • huge savings in the packaging material • reduction of storage and transportation costs • low energy consumption • easier handling of the pallet at the points of sale.

It is a very innovative choice, if we consider that, presently, the production of these types of packaging solutions requires the use of two different machines: one for the production of cardboard cases in standard formats of 6, 12, 15 and 24 pieces, and another one for the packaging of a huge number of bottles in trays whose size is equal to ¼ or ½ europallet (½ europallet = until 80 bottles).

reduce the partitions purchasing cost by about 20% and their storage volume by at least 60%;

have a more compact machine, since both the partition magazine and the Partition Inserting Device are mounted on top of the machine; in this way, the machine dimensions are the same as those of a conventional case packer;

speed up the partition insertion operation and the loading times of the relevant magazine, since partitions are already pre-assembled;

reduce the sensitivity of partitions to humidity and climate changes.

The PID SBP® and the pre-assembled partitions magazine are mounted at the machine inlet, on top of the pack-forming section. The maximum operating speed is 40 packs/minute (1-head model) or 60 packs/minute (2-head model).

A mechanical arm equipped with vacuum suckers picks a stretched board pre-assembled partition from the partition magazine, opens it and lowers it between the products that have just been grouped in the required pack collation.

Finally a cardboard blank is wrapped around the products by means of special guides, thus forming a case.

* Data provided on this page are not binding, as they have to be confirmed by SMI according to the machine user's production conditions and technical specifications.

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